OCEANSIDE: Father seeks answers in son's death

The Los Angeles County man said he was heartbroken to learn that his 22-year-old son was shot to death by a deputy on an Oceanside street May 20.

He also said he was shocked by reports that his son had gone on a rock-throwing rampage before he died. Police and at least one witness said Edwards was wielding a broomstick when he was shot.

Nobody involved in the incident or its investigation has offered an explanation of Edwards' behavior. A Sheriff's Department officials said the deputy acted in self defense.

"We are turning over every stone, trying to find out what happened and how come it happened," said Elwood "Tim" White. "We don't feel that he had to be shot and killed. We are at a loss."

White said his son's name was not Elwood Edwards, but rather Elwood White, and said the name discrepancy has been a source of confusion since his son's birth.

White and two other people who said they served as mentors for Edwards said the young man was not violent, but respectful and kind.

"He was very sincere," White said. "He listened to people and cared."

Edwards' family lives in Los Angeles County. His father said Edwards had recently worked at a hospice and was hoping to attend junior college. In his spare time, Edwards enjoyed boxing and dancing, his father said.

White said he had spoken with his son on the phone just hours before the shooting, right after White and Edwards' mother returned home from their daughter's college graduation in Texas. The father said his son was in Oceanside visiting a childhood friend on the morning of the shooting.

Police and witnesses said Edwards had thrown rocks and punches at apparent strangers at an Oceanside gas station before police and deputies caught up with and confronted him a half-mile away, on Oceanside Boulevard near Temple Heights Elementary School about 1:30 p.m. May 20.

White, 52, said the reports of Edwards' bizarre outburst run counter to what he knows of his son, who was one of nine children. White said Edwards had four older sisters and was his oldest son.

White said he has never known his son to drink or take drugs, nor did he have any indication that his son was suffering any sort of mental illness. Edwards' autopsy results were not available last week; it generally takes weeks for toxicology test results to be returned.

At least two family friends ---- who saw themselves as mentors to Edwards ---- said they, too, were left to wonder what happened.

Dan Cormier said he met Edwards when Cormier was a librarian in Woodland Hills in Los Angeles County and Edwards, then 9 years old, started coming by regularly after school.

Cormier said the library was a safe place for many children in the community to spend time while their parents were at work, looking for a job or perhaps even homeless. The site, he said, became known as a latchkey library.

"The only parent that came up and said, 'Thanks for watching my kid' was Tim (Elwood's father)," Cormier said. "He was the only one classy enough to shake my hand."

Cormier asked his sister, Ellen Slongo, if she'd be interested in taking in Edwards for a school year. Slongo agreed, and Edwards moved to live with Slongo and her family in Thunder Bay, a Canadian town of about 100,000 people on the north shore of Lake Superior, north of Duluth, Minn.

During that year, his freshman year in high school, Edwards was a track star who earned a race in a national meet, Slongo said. He also played basketball, indoor soccer and "every sport that was available," she said, except hockey.

Edwards was an "awesome guy, a wonderful excellent young man," said Slongo. "He was so engaged and outgoing, pleasant, kind."

Slongo said she last saw him about two years ago during a visit to Los Angeles.

Slongo, 48, said she was heartbroken to hear that Edwards had died. She said his outburst, as reported, was "alien" to her.

White said his family was struggling to come up with the money to bury his son. He said he wants to know why his son was killed.

"I don't think that was necessary, but I don't have all the facts," White said. "We are a pro-police family. I'm just at a loss."

Supporters of Edwards have created a Twitter account: @Justice4Elwood.